No. 1 Women’s Basketball Defeats No. 8 Western Carolina 66-47, Advances to SoCon Semifinals

Thursday, March 5

Asheville, N.C. / Harrah's Cherokee Center

11:00 a.m.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

19-9,10-4SoCon

Western Carolina

3-26,0-14SoCon

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Western Caro.	11	8	14	14	47
Chattanooga	19	11	25	11	66

Photo by: Jeremy Fleming

3/5/2026 12:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Notes Photo Gallery

The No. 1 seeded Chattanooga Mocs women’s basketball team advances to the semifinal round on Friday after a dominating quarterfinal victory.

CHATTANOOGA (March 5, 2026) --- The No. 1 seeded Chattanooga Mocs women's basketball team posted a comfortable 66-47 victory over No. 8 Western Carolina in the quarterfinal round of the 2026 Southern Conference Championships on Thursday afternoon inside the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.

Up Next (Bracket): Chattanooga advances to the semifinal round and will face the winner of No. 4 Furman and No. 5 Mercer on Friday (March 6) at 11 a.m. (ET) inside the Harrah's Cherokee Center. The game can be found on ESPN+ with links available on the schedule page.

Records/Series
Chattanooga 19-9
Western Carolina 3-26
Chattanooga leads the all-time series 91-13… now nine straight wins over the Catamounts and 13 of the last 14.

Game Breakdown
The Mocs took control early, highlighted by Gianna Corbitt knocking down three consecutive three-pointers, including one at 5:59 assisted by Izzy McPherson, pushing the lead to 13-7. UTC maintained its momentum and finished the quarter ahead, 19-11, with Caia Elisaldez adding a three-pointer at 2:29.

Ave Card's offensive rebound and subsequent layup at 8:34 extended Chattanooga's lead to 21-11 before the Mocs increased its advantage with three-pointers from Corbitt and Kalifa Ford, pushing the score to 27-15 by the 3:07 mark. Sarah Owona's three-pointer at 2:14 solidified Chattanooga's lead, ending the quarter ahead 30-19.

Chattanooga widened its lead in the third quarter as the defense forced Western Carolina into five turnovers, while McPherson's three-pointer at 7:44 and Ford's three-point play at 1:15 lengthened the advantage, ending the quarter with a 25-14 run.

Chattanooga maintained control throughout the remainder of the late stages. Card contributed significantly with an early layup to make it 57-35. Corbitt added a three-pointer at 6:39, assisted by Bedke, pushing the score to 60-37. Chattanooga's Ford extended the lead with a jumper at 4:28. Despite Christina Bowers' efforts, including a basket at 3:15, Chattanooga secured a 66-47 victory as time expired.

Notable
- 68-22 all-time in the SoCon Tournament…27-11 in the first round/quarterfinals of the event all-time…4th straight year advancing to the semifinals…won nine of the last 10 SoCon Tournament games...13-0 vs Western Carolina.
- Led for 38:05 of the 40 minutes…never trailed…the score was tied just twice after 0-0.
- Tournament record tying 13 3pt made…last done in 2008 by the Mocs against UNCG…season high…most for the Mocs since 14 in the 96-87 win over Georgia Southern on Dec. 20, 2020.
- Head Coach Deandra Schirmer earned her 150th career win as a Head Coach

Quotable
"We talked a lot about this week about tournament time and how exciting it is and the atmosphere. And we knew that we wanted to come out and prove something. I feel like the way that the regular season ended left a bitter taste in our mouth. And so this whole entire week our team has been very, very locked in. We've been locked in on us and what we do well. And to see us come out and be able to execute the way that we did, I think that offensively we were just clicking on all cylinders. That was really a testament to a lot of the hard work that we put in this week knowing that we got a challenge in front of us and this group rises to every challenge I put in front of them." – Coach Deandra Schirmer

"We didn't start the third quarter the right way, the way that we wanted to start defensively, so what we were talking about in the time out in the hood was get a kill, get three stops in a row, and just continue to get stops and string along good possessions of defense that meant to our offense. And we're just resilient. We're not going to, we're not going to lay down to any, any challenge." – Gianna Corbitt on defensive stops in third quarter

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